China

China's premier calls for greater planning in Chinese market

CHINA: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said China will restrain its 'blind' expansion of the wind power industry and improve planning procedures for projects.

China's premier Wen Jiabao... China must strengthen overall planning

Wen added: "China must establish a mechanism promoting the use of new energy. It must strengthen overall planning, furnish supporting facilities to projects, guide the projects with government policies, and expand domestic demands."

Wen made the comments in his report to the annual National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, in Beijing.

Last year, China replaced the United States to be the world’s largest wind-power developer. According to the China Wind Energy Association (CWEA), China had about 18GW wind turbines installed in 2011, taking the overall installed capacity to 65GW.

But this rapid development has led to growing pains in the sector with a large number of projects awaiting connection to the grid. Additionally, China’s wind turbine manufacturing capacity now far exceeds demand.

Seeing lucrative profits from wind-turbine production, many Chinese businesses have edged into the industrial sector. China has over 100 wind-turbine makers, compared with only six in 2004.

Around 90 wind-turbine makers have produced prototypes. They have a total capacity to produce about 40GW wind turbines annually. But according to China’s current wind-power development plan, China will install only 15GW to 20GW wind turbines each year in the near future.

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